


Your Little Secret

by petpluto



Category: Chuck (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fluff, M/M, Non-Linear Narrative, POV Alternating
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-25
Updated: 2013-03-25
Packaged: 2017-12-06 12:22:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 15,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/735576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/petpluto/pseuds/petpluto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A/U At Stanford, Bryce gets involved with the CIA, gets Chuck Bartowski to be his boyfriend, and gets the government off Chuck's trail. Chuck deals with all of this remarkably well for someone prone to freaking out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: No matter how hard I wish it, they're not mine.

Bryce Larkin isn’t really sure when he fell for his roommate. He thinks it may have been in those first moments of meeting the guy, because there were no significant changes in how much he enjoyed Chuck from that day forward. He knows when he realized he was in love with his best friend, though, and that was when said best friend had flopped onto Bryce’s bed after a long day of classes. With Bryce in it. And given the dimensions of the bed and the dimensions of Bryce – as well as the dimensions of one Charles Irving Bartowski - that pretty much meant Chuck flopped onto him. On purpose.

This was only about a week and a half since Bryce had crawled drunkenly into Chuck’s bed at three in the morning, and cuddled up to his sleeping roommate. Which he could have possibly played off as a case of mistaken bed identity with the help of one Captain Morgan, if not for (a) the fact that Chuck’s bed was the harder of the two to get to, because of things like unstrategically placed Dungeons and Dragons books and desks and a couple of old computers, and (b) Chuck’s sleepily surprised reaction had been met with Bryce’s cogent (to his ears, if not Chuck’s) explanation about his sudden urge to cuddle with him at three in the morning, while drunk.

He’d been worried about Chuck’s reaction that next day, after Chuck had gently nudged him to the side of the bed in order to get himself up and ready for normal Wednesday activities. Well, he’d worried several hours after that, when he woke up properly and blearily realized he was the sole occupant of Chuck’s bed, and that maybe he should have asked Chuck’s position on male canoodling before just jumping in and doing it. And maybe that he should have thought twice about rooming with the one guy he would jump in a millisecond, if given proper encouragement.

He’d been worried over nothing, as it turned out. Chuck didn’t really mention it. But he had cleaned up the path to his bed, and made Bryce move the desks and his own bed around. Chuck mentioned that the room felt cramped the other way, but Bryce couldn’t help but notice he had a much easier path to follow during his next drunken exploit. Looking back, Bryce doesn’t know precisely why it wasn’t this act that didn’t inspire the realization of, “I’m in love with Chuck”. But it didn’t. Maybe because the room did feel cramped the other way.

And then Chuck had chosen to flop on top of him and scooch him to one side so he could lay there and complain about his day. It was a pretty incredible turn of events if you were Bryce Larkin, guy-who-had-been-afraid-of-driving-off-straight-roommate. And Bryce, who could feel Chuck’s hot breath on his neck, recognized that he was, in point of fact, utterly head over heels.

And he goes with it. He begins going out and drinking with the other gymnasts more frequently, and if he somehow ends up in Chuck’s bed at the end of the night for some (semi… sort of… not really) platonic cuddling, all the better.


	2. Chapter 2

The first time they kiss, it takes Chuck completely by surprise. More than completely, actually. His first reaction is to reel back and gasp, and look at Bryce with what is probably the stupidest expression ever to grace a human’s face affixed to his own. Bryce, for his part, looks a bit surprised too, but more than that seems to be quietly resigned. Later, when they go out to get the pizza, Bryce tells him that he had imagined how this would happen a thousand different ways, and that he’s really glad it didn’t happen way #233, that being them both being shit-faced drunk and in the middle of one of the frat’s parties. Chuck’s pretty glad it didn’t happen that way too, because really, he’s having enough of a time trying to come up with a coherent and linear thought process about this now when he’s sober; he doesn’t even want to think what his brain would have felt like if he’d thrown alcohol on top of sexual confusion and more than a smidgeon of euphoria.

So, the first time they kiss, Chuck has been enthusiastically expounding on the merits of Next Gen to Bryce, who not only already knows all of the points Chuck is making but emphatically agrees with all of them as well. Some of them may have originally been Bryce’s points, actually. It doesn’t make much of a difference, though, because Chuck’s mindset from the point of meeting Bryce forward has been very much in the vein of a symbiotic relationship, or a connection on a deeper level. And then he spins around at precisely the wrong (or right) time as they walk through the door to their room and ends up with a face full of Bryce. Which is made more awkward by the fact that neither of them make a move to step back. And then Bryce moves the opposite of back, and there are lips. Lips on his lips, lips that he has to admit he may have thought of once or twice, but never in a serious “Bryce would like me” way. Because he’s seen the type of girls (GIRLS) Bryce goes for, and Chuck doesn’t fit the criteria. For starters, he’s not a girl. Secondly, he’s not actually flexible. And third, he’s not cool. He’s just been geeking out about Next Gen, so he’s pretty firm on that point. Only Bryce could be cool and geek out about Next Gen. Chuck thinks it’s in some bylaws somewhere, and that Bryce Larkin is mentioned there by name. 

Then Chuck pulls back, with that ridiculous look on his face, and Bryce just says,   
“Yeah” and gives Chuck a guardedly apprehensive look.

Chuck, for his part, gapes for what seems like at least a minute before gasping out, “What was that?”

Bryce’s face – which wasn’t really expressive in the moments directly after the not-so-accidental kiss - closes up shop, nods, steps back from Chuck, and mutters something about making arrangements to get another room.

“Wait.” Chuck panics, and blurts out, “I never said I didn’t like it.”

Bryce looks back and up at him, no longer looking like he’s worried Chuck is going to freak out and run from the room. Which, Chuck has to concede, was a distinct possibility, given his flight instincts and his abject failure in dealing well with ugly confrontations.

Chuck decides to make things a little better. He decides to do this by sidling up to Bryce and asking, “Where do we go from here?”

The tension in Bryce seems to break, and he gives Chuck one of his real grins. “Let me take you out.”

“Like on a date?” Chuck’s voice cracks, and he blushes.

Bryce’s grin widens. “Yeah. Like a date. Nothing too fancy, but I can buy you a pizza. And next time, I’ll take you out right.”

Chuck is a bit surprised by how over the moon he is about this development. Especially since he is pretty sure that until 3:43 this afternoon he thought he was straight. Even if he’d always noticed how pretty Bryce’s eyes are, and how beautiful – in a completely objective, aesthetic way – Bryce really is.

But there’s a wrinkle in this plan, and that wrinkle is cute and goes by the name of Jill. “Wait,” Chuck says. “I’ve got to go talk to Jill.”

Bryce looks vaguely unhappy with this, so Chuck has to pursue it further. “It won’t be fair to her, you taking me out on a date, if I don’t end things with her first.”

The look Bryce is giving him now says something about Chuck giving him Christmas morning. Chuck likes that look, likes that he can make the mighty and cool Bryce Larkin look at him in that awed, “You are Obi-Wan Kenobi” way that Chuck just knows he throws too often in Bryce’s direction himself. 

It is one of the things Chuck clings to through his awkward conversation with Jill, which at least twice contains the exchange, “I thought you were straight”-“I thought I was too”. That, and the promise of pizza and more kisses.

An hour later, Chuck stumbles back to his room, worn out. Bryce is on his feet almost as soon as the door begins to open, and Chuck can tell he’s full of pent up nervous energy. Bryce doesn’t say anything, which isn’t odd for him; but it certainly doesn’t make Chuck’s life any easier.

“Hey,” Chuck says after he closes the door. “I hate to do this, but can I get a rain check on the date?”

Bryce starts to nod, then stops. “What if we did something low key?”

Chuck cocks his head at him, and Bryce continues. “What if we ordered a pizza, picked it up, and then came back here and watched Santa Conquers the Martians?”

“Isn’t that basically what we did last night?”

“Well, yeah.”

Chuck doesn’t get it. “I don’t get it. What makes tonight different?”

Bryce looks triumphant. “Tonight, I let you pick out the toppings. And I pay. And we call it a date.”

Chuck’s feeling pretty down with that assessment of the situation.


	3. Chapter 3

It starts when Chuck tries to take his hand, when they’re walking around campus. Bryce shakes him off, gives a slight shake of the head to reinforce the point. He tries not to catch Chuck’s face, tries not to see the hurt and insecurity Bryce knows is blossoming across it.

He doesn’t know how to explain it to Chuck, but he wants to keep their relationship just between the two of them. If Bryce is being honest with himself, he would have to own up to the fact that he doesn’t want to face up to how much Chuck means to him, how much he’s risking getting this far with Chuck. He can admit (to himself) that he’s in love with Chuck, sure. But to openly let Chuck know? That’s going a bit too far. But that’s if he’s being honest with himself, which, on the whole, he isn’t. His not-the-whole truth is about Chuck becoming a target.

Someone figuring out who Bryce is, and then coming after Chuck. Someone figuring out exactly how much Chuck means to Bryce, and using that to get information. Someone figuring out exactly how much Chuck means to Bryce, and killing Chuck just to hurt him. It’s better if Chuck doesn’t know how much he means to Bryce. It’s better if only Bryce knows.

He tells Chuck that he wants to keep what’s happening between them strictly between them, that he doesn’t want anyone else perverting what they have. It sounds insincere and crass as it leaves his mouth, but Chuck just nods, and asks if he can at least tell Ellie. Bryce doesn’t know how to stop Chuck from telling Ellie anything any more than he knows how to make himself tell Chuck some very important somethings.

And so Chuck goes with it. He takes exactly what Bryce is willing to give. He takes initiative to talk to Jill about his new relationship, and that alone makes Bryce feel like the world’s biggest ass.

He doesn’t try to take Bryce’s hand in public, and waits for Bryce to start almost anything in private.

And even though he’s the one who started this, the one who made the rules, it sits uneasily. When they walk to class, Bryce’s palm itches, wanting to just reach down and clasp his lover’s hand. When he comes back from a mission and crashes one of Chuck’s clubs just to see him all the sooner, he wants to walk in and immediately draw Chuck to him. He doesn’t. He lets the distance grow between them. He pretends that he doesn’t see how he’s hurting Chuck. He pretends that he’s getting exactly what he wants.


	4. Chapter 4

Sarah’s not too sure about her new partner, at first. She knows Carina’s worked with him before, knows Carina doesn’t like him too much, knows that’s because he was seemingly immune to Carina’s advances. If Carina has one flaw, it is an inability to like someone after that someone has decided to not let Carina seduce them; unless, of course, that reason is wrapped up in Sarah Walker, and even then she’ll try for you and hope to succeed. Which is something Sarah thinks, on the whole, she deals with quite admirably, especially after that whole Cole fiasco.

Not allowing her to seduce him is not why Sarah Walker is unsure of Bryce Larkin. It’s something else. It may be that he is just too good-looking. It may be that while he is a charmer, he doesn’t seem particularly charmed by anyone. It may be that he’s flirtatious, but distant. It may be that Sarah’s a bit unnerved by how he can ooze emotion and yet still seem almost perfectly devoid of them at the same time. It’s in the friendliness that seems to operate, at least to Sarah, as a way to keep him aloof instead of making him easier to get to know. No, Sarah’s not sure of Bryce Larkin as a person; but as a spy, she has to admit that he’s probably among the best she’s ever encountered, because of all of the things that make her not sure of him as a person.

Their first mission together goes well. They work seamlessly, as if they haven’t been paired up because Carina spent the last mission they were on ignoring plans as simplistic as “1, 2, 3, shoot” and because his partner ended up dead, but instead because they were actively matched. It is gratifying to coordinate so well with someone else, in a way she doesn’t with Carina. It is wonderful to get a bit of praise from Graham on a job well done, without there being an undercurrent of almost having started an international incident along the way. It still has the same adrenaline rush as the chaotic nature of her missions with Carina, and that is nicely balanced by a lack of genuine anxiety that the haphazardness of those missions bring. In short, it’s actually enjoyable. Invigorating, really.

And so, when she asks if he wants to hit up a bar, in celebration of their newfound partnership as well as their incredible success, she’s surprised when he turns her down. Surprised, because she thought maybe he would have felt the enjoyableness too, even though it’s hard to tell what Bryce Larkin (or Stephen Irving, as she knows him in this moment) is actually thinking. She’s more than a little embarrassed, actually, that her overtures of friendliness and euphoria are that easily rejected. He seems to recognize that, and just says, “Sorry, Erin.” (She’s going by Erin Brightly currently.) “I’d love to, but I’ve got to get home. Caught a late flight. There’s someone I need to see.”

“Ah,” she says easily – and it is easy, now that she knows it isn’t the absence of pleasure in her specific company but the anticipation of another’s that influenced his decision, “Hot date, huh?”

The grin that spreads across his face is the first completely genuine expression she’s ever seen him give up to the world, and given that they’ve spent the last three days in almost constant, practically uncomfortable, contact, that’s saying something. It’s beautiful, and makes her want to reassess her position on him as a person.

“Incredibly,” he answers. It’s years before she meets the person who can get him to grin like that.


	5. Chapter 5

Chuck Bartowski begins his day by packing up his stuff that’s currently housed in the room he shares with one Bryce Larkin. He’s also created a pile of “Stuff We Bought Together”, a pile of “Stuff We Bought Together That I Really Want”, and a pile of “Stuff We Bought Together That Was Really More For You, So Why Couldn’t You Have Used Your Own Money, You Big Jerk”. Those names exist mainly in Chuck’s head.

He studies. He talks to some of his frat brothers. He makes arrangements to take Jake Duffy’s spot in Mark’s room, because after Jake failed to take any of his midterms and didn’t show up again after Thanksgiving Break, it’s pretty obvious that he isn’t coming back.

He studies some more, and then plays some video games. Goes to work on perfecting his and Bryce’s version of Zork, and then realizes why he didn’t want to work on his and Bryce’s version of Zork. And that reason is Bryce Larkin.

Around the time he expects Bryce home, not that the time he expects Bryce home means much of anything anymore, hence the piles, he sits on the bed closest to the door to wait patiently, bringing a couple of text books and pens with him so he has something to do during the wait he’s hoping doesn’t happen. 

Around the two-hour mark after the time he expects Bryce home, he starts bouncing nervously.

Around the four-hour mark after he expects Bryce to be home, he is asleep in a rather awkward position almost guaranteed to cause inexorable pain through the next day and beyond.

Around the five and a half hour mark, Bryce stumbles into the room, smelling faintly of perfume. Around the five and a half hour and a couple of minutes mark, Bryce makes the unfortunate discovery of a half-bent, previously completely asleep Chuck taking up the foot of his bed, the part of the floor Bryce’d just attempted to step on, and the bit of wall Chuck then hit his head on when he flailed because of the pain in his foot. All in all, Bryce’s evening, which hadn’t been swell to start with, is getting worse. As is, in point of fact, Chuck’s. 

“What are you doing there?” he whispers loudly, as Chuck continues to let loose his string of whisper-curses.

Chuck turns on the bed to look at him, clutching his head and his foot, “What am I doing here?” he whispers furiously back. “What are you doing here so late? What time is it?”

“Quarter to four.”

“Quarter to four, “ Chuck repeats.

Bryce has the grace to look a bit ashamed, before deciding that he really should know what he should look quite ashamed of before he gives into that particular feeling. 

“Yeah.”

“I live here!”

“What?”

“You asked what I was doing here. I live here.” Chuck looks sleepily furious and about half a minute late with his not-so-witty comeback, which, if Bryce does say so, is an exceptionally cute Chuck.

Bryce looks nicely put together and as if someone has not just waltzed in five hours late and then stepped on his foot, which, if you were to ask Chuck, is normally an incredibly cute Bryce but at the moment is just annoying and infuriating and upsetting on a deep emotional level, all at the same time.

“At the foot of my bed?”

“No!” Chuck takes a couple of breaths and then hobbles over to turn on the light. Bryce blinks a couple of times, and then notices the boxes. And the piles.

Warily, he asks, “What’s going on?” 

“I’m moving out, that’s what’s going on. And I’m taking the Tron poster with me!”

Bryce doesn’t quite know how to respond to that at quarter to four. “Why don’t we get some sleep and you can tell me what’s going on in the morning?”

“It is the morning.”

“A better hour of the morning.”

“And I have gotten sleep. I’ve gotten a lot of sleep.” Bryce looks at him. “Well, enough sleep to do this.”

“And what is this?”

“This is me breaking up with you. If we were ever officially going out, which we weren’t and aren’t and will now never, because you had to keep everything such a secret so you could flirt with the girls on the gymnastics team and come home at all hours and leave for days and smell like bad perfume when you finally do come back and where the hell were you four hours ago when I could have told you this and then moved all my stuff to Mark’s room?”

Bryce blinks a couple of more times. “You’re moving into Mark’s room? What about Jake?”

“Jake hasn’t been back to school since Thanksgiving, doesn’t that tell you how much you’ve been around? And that’s what you take out of this whole thing?! That Mark already has a roommate?”

“No, it’s just –“ He didn’t know how to do this. “I don’t know how to do this.”

“Do what? Break up a nonexistent relationship?”

“I don’t want to break up our nonexistent relationship. And it’s not nonexistent.” As an afterthought, he adds, “And I’m not flirting with anyone on the gymnastics team.”

Chuck sighs. “Then tell me what in the hell you’ve been doing.”

Bryce is frozen. “I can’t.”

He avoids looking at Chuck as he says it, keeping his eyes down and to the floor instead.

Chuck’s face, his wildly expressive face, grows dark, and he begins his move toward the door.

“Wait,” Bryce panics, grasps at straws. “Mark’s asleep and you hate sleeping on an unmade bed.”

“I’ll crash on the couch.”

“That’s ridiculous.” Bryce knows he’s picked the wrong descriptor by the way Chuck’s face scrunches up. “I mean, you should just stay in here. Your bed’s here, you’re stuff’s still here for now, and if you need to be alone, I’ll go sleep on the couch.” It’s a long shot, but he’s betting on Chuck’s innate affability and sweetness to counter the amount of anger it would take for Chuck to want to see him on the couch. It ‘s a bet he wins when Chuck agrees to stay in the room, and denies that Bryce has to leave it.

About twenty minutes after the lights are off and Chuck’s asleep again, Bryce makes his decision. He slips into Chuck’s bed, curls up along side him, and waits for him to wake up. Which he does, but not before Bryce falls asleep.


	6. Chapter 6

As she waits for Bryce, Sarah puffs some air through her lips, trying to not let the boredom get to her. 

He’s phoning home, talking to his Significant Other, who is the source of much gossip around the office. When she gets to be in the office. Which is rarely, because she’s a spy. And most days, she’s definitely on board with that. She hears Bryce’s laugh on the wind, and can’t help but take a peek at her partner, who is still pretty closed off after years of partnering up on various assignments and working together consistently for about a year and a half, and almost constantly for another six months. For example: she doesn’t know anything about this Significant Other, except for the barest of details. Like, how long they’ve been together. Which was gleaned not because Bryce took it upon himself to share, but because they ended up in a bar with Carina and John Casey one night. Carina issued the line about spies not falling in love, and the futility of relationships because of that fact, and the conversation was quickly headed to where she would try to sleep with Casey or Bryce, or both, and Bryce quickly nipped that in the bud for self-preservation more than an overwhelming need to talk.

“I’ve got a work around,” Bryce offered casually, taking a sip of his beer. “I fell before I was a spy.”

Carina had made a face. “So, you’ve been with the same person for – “

“Almost seven years.” Casey seemed to evaluate him again right there, as Bryce played with his phone, pulling up what Sarah is sure are hidden pictures because the few times she’s gotten a hold of Bryce’s phone, she has only been able to find some snapshots of a Buy More Nerd Herd symbol. Which may be some crazy inside joke, but not even that explains constantly looking at them.

It takes only a little poking around to learn that Bryce is 26. She’s still not entirely sure, because the guy keeps more fake identification on him than any other person she’s ever met, and that is including her con artist of a father. But 26 seems like a good age for him.

He certainly looks 26 now; carefree in a way he probably shouldn’t be in what can easily become a war zone, even if they do their job exactly right. She catches some noises on the wind, halves of words that don’t sound like English, and she can tell when the conversation gets to its end by the way his body starts to slump a bit. She ambles toward him, and gets there just as he hangs up.

“How are things on the home front?” She asks as casually as she can muster. She never asks about a girlfriend, because there are a few rumors floating around that the girlfriend’s a boyfriend. Then again, she doesn’t want to assume boyfriend, because those rumors could just be sour grapes from the various women he’s turned down. And more than the embarrassment factor of choosing the wrong pronoun is the fact that Bryce has yet to slip up himself and give it away. Which means, to Sarah, that it’s personal and not something he wants to go into. And Sarah’s got enough of that sort of thing in her own backyard, so she’s not inclined to be throwing anything at glass houses.

“Great.” He grins at her with his rare real grin, the one that lights his eyes. “We’ve both been instructed to stay safe, and to not do anything Kirk would do, like sleep with any green women. Also, to wear sunscreen. What’s next on the docket?”

The relay is almost always the same, although in the beginning Bryce’s… person was more into telling Bryce to stay safe and telling Sarah to watch his back. She’s not sure how, but she’s gotten herself included in the safety tips. She thinks it may be because that Person knows that Sarah knows that Bryce either tells his Person outright or gives big honking clues where their missions are. Either way, it’s a breach of protocol. But not one Sarah’s inclined to care too much about, and certainly not a big enough one to make her give up the best partner she’s ever had, and the closest example for how to make a relationship work under these specific circumstances she’s ever found – even if he doesn’t do much in the way of publically demonstrating much of anything.


	7. Chapter 7

It starts when Chuck sleepily tells Bryce, “I love you”, and is gone to the waking world before Bryce even has time to offer it back.

He wouldn’t. Not yet. He wouldn’t because he doesn’t know how to. He doesn’t know how to give so much of himself to one person so openly. He’s not Chuck. Chuck has all of him, has from almost the first moment they met. But Bryce can’t even figure out how to let Chuck know he’s got a piece of him. The worst part is, he has a lot of Chuck, but not all of him. Chuck has more people to share himself with – Ellie and Morgan, for starters. Chuck knows how to do it, too. Knows instinctively how to look at someone and give his heart away.

It is a skill Bryce envies. Another part of Chuck Bryce envies – which is probably tied rather concretely into being able to do the first thing well – is how Chuck is able to give without caring if he gets anything in return. Like the declaration of love.

It isn’t that Chuck is sleepy, and so it comes out. It is that Chuck just gives that to Bryce, without a second thought. Without worrying about what it will do to his position in their relationship. Without caring if Bryce is ready to say it back. Without even thinking about Bryce saying it back. Chuck’s complete lack of guile is intoxicating and seductive.

So when he sees Chuck studying like a madman for a psychology test and the alarm bells go off, he heads out to see Flemming. More than anything else in the world, Bryce wants to keep Chuck out of this life that he leads. He wants Chuck safe. He wants Chuck to never be in a position similar to their library battles, the ones Chuck always loses because he can never take the kill shot. He wants Chuck to remain who he is, a good and sweet person who can offer up an “I love you” at the moment it takes his fancy. And even more than that, he wants Chuck alive. Just alive.


	8. Chapter 8

Chuck looks down at the sleeping Bryce, sighs, and then gently shakes him awake. “Bryce, I’ve got to get my stuff.”

“No,” Bryce replies, “S’not morning.”

“Morning came. And then went. And Mark’s got a test tomorrow in theoretical particles, so if I’m going to get in there tonight, I’ve got to go now.”

It’s that fact that retrieves Bryce from dreamland and deposits him back into this thing called reality, where he’s a spy and lying to his best friend/not-boyfriend about his extracurricular activities. He shakes his head. “I was going to talk to you.”

Chuck fidgets, and breathes deep. “Okay,” he finally says, letting the full force of his Unhappy Face hit Bryce for the first time since he started randomly disappearing. “What do you want to talk about?’

Bryce grabs Chuck’s wrist and pulls him down onto the bed. Chuck, for his part, doesn’t complain much. His body does shudder, though, when Bryce wraps his arms around him. “You’re my best friend.”

Chuck’s body shakes a bit more. Bryce waits for the words to come, but nothing really significant decides to float to the surface. He tells Chuck to hold on, gets up, turns off the lights, crawls back into bed, and wraps himself around Chuck once more.

“You’re my best friend. You’re my only friend.” It’s that sort of truth that Bryce has come to over the months he’s been a full-fledged almost-CIA agent. The agency compliments him for his people skills, for his ability to get people to do what he wants them to do, and feel basically how he wants them to feel. That, along with the flips and endurance from years in various sports, Bryce is set to become a super spy. And the only one who has truly noticed or taken any care about the fact that he’s never around is Chuck. And that’s part of why Bryce loves him so much.

Chuck gets him, all of him, in a way other people don’t. Chuck worships him, but doesn’t ask for anything beyond what Bryce wants to give. Which is his friendship, and this weird sexual-type relationship they have going on that neither one of them has put a name to. Well, scratch that. Chuck’s tried, because Chuck is good and Chuck is sweet and Chuck isn’t about to go sleeping with his best friend and roommate unless it means something. Unless his best friend and roommate asks him to have it mean something without calling it something, or doing anything related to that something outside of their personal space.

Chuck is still shaking, but it’s lessened. And Bryce knows where he has to start. “I’m an agent for the Central Intelligence Agency, more commonly known as the CIA.”

It’s not a very good place to start. He figures that out when Chuck startles and tries to pull away. Maybe he should have continued with that whole, “You’re my only friend” bit, expanded on that, made it clear what that meant to him when Chuck has so many friends it is positively outrageous. But here he is, in the midst of this line about the CIA, and he’s got to make it work. Luckily, he’s Bryce Larkin, and he’s pretty much been able to make things work for him as far back as his memory spans. Unluckily, he can’t remember a time that it has to go well like this has to go well, and he’s pretty sure that blasé attitude is part of why it works. 

Turns out, Chuck is a bit more skeptical than Bryce originally anticipated, and a bit more eager to be convinced than he could have hoped. Especially when Bryce takes the time to explain why Chuck is a dope for thinking he’s been actively flirting with the other gymnasts.


	9. Chapter 9

Their plans had been getting lunch at a swanky restaurant Bryce knows and meeting with some analyst he’s excited about, but one phone call and those plans vanish in a haze of almost eaten French food.

They’re at the Buy More in under 8 minutes, and Sarah is growing more and more concerned with how tense her partner is getting. And more and more worried about how little she does know about the current situation.

They round the corner, having snuck in the back of the store because according to Bryce’s mystery caller the front is completely out blocked by whoever these bad guys are, and Sarah desperately wants to ask how in the hell Bryce can know the layout of this particular Buy More so well.

And then there’s Tommy, holding onto a lanky, tall, cute guy with seemingly unmanageable hair and wide eyes. A lanky, tall, cute guy who is babbling to Tommy and telling him, “I’m just an analyst, not even a very good analyst. I’m not allowed to look at anything that requires more than standard level clearance” and on and on. A lanky, tall, cute guy who gasps a bit when he sees them.

Her partner, in what has to be a first, reveals where they are by echoing Lanky’s gasp. Which allows Tommy to spot them. Which is pretty inconvenient, Sarah thinks, because Tommy’s managed to escape from them a couple of times before and kill a couple of their guys on his way out as well, so the element of surprise would have been more than a little beneficial.

“Why, hello Bryce. How nice of you to join us.” As Bryce and Sarah stand up and move out into the open, Tommy pulls Lanky around and in front, and switches his attention to him. “Why don’t you tell me again how you’re just an analyst?”

“He is just an analyst. So just let the kid go,” Bryce grounds out.

Lanky looks more than vaguely affronted. “Kid? Honestly, we were born in the same year!”

“Not now, wI tIg!” Bryce doesn’t look back at the hostage after his initial gaffe, focusing all of his attention on Tommy. Lanky quiets down, but throws what seems to be a glare in Bryce’s direction.

Sarah is more than a bit confused by this particular dynamic, but keeps her gun pointed at Tommy. As does a sudden third member of their group.

“I’ve got a clean shot.” Sarah’s confusion levels spike when Casey speaks.

“No you don’t!” The guy in Tommy’s grip seems to only now panic, and goes stiff.

“You’ll be fine.” Casey’s eyes are also trained on just Tommy, and Sarah can say that this is one of the more surreal moments she’s ever been privy to experiencing.

“Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! I’m susceptible to bullets!” 

Casey seems to want to ignore that particular demand, but Bryce growls (and who knew Bryce could growl?), “Casey, don’t.”

And then everything seems to happen at once. Casey begins to argue, Sarah backs up her partner, and her partner says something not in English to the kid. Who responds back, also not in English, and gets shot in the chest for his troubles. Sarah, who is just beginning to come to the realization that this kid may not be just some random CIA-important hostage, is pretty shocked by this turn of events, but quickly shoots at Tommy. As does Casey. 

It’s Bryce who gets the kill shot, though. And it’s Bryce who makes it to the kid first. Who is having a bit of a coughing fit.

“What did you ask him?” Sarah demands.

It’s the kid who answers. “‘Are you wearing a vest? – ‘Yes, I am wearing a vest.’ God, getting shot hurts.” 

Bryce laughs and helps the kid get the shirt off. And by helps, Sarah really means he rips it from the kid’s body. And there, plain as day, is a bulletproof vest. Which Bryce proceeds to also help the guy on the floor out of. And Sarah’s starting to get a headache. 

“I mean, really hurts,” Lanky continues. “Like, Knock-Me-Out-Doc-Cuz-The-Pain’s-So-Bad hurts.”

Bryce is still laughing and pulls the kid up into a sitting position. “Yeah. It tends to sting a bit.”

“This isn’t a sting. This is a full 10 on the pain scale.”

“Well,” Bryce appears to be answering thoughtfully. “Your pain tolerance is like a negative 6, so…” The kid glares at him again, and Bryce moves along to directing his next question at Casey. “Where the hell were you?”

Casey looks about as abashed as he can. “Was protecting the nerd, like you asked. They got the drop on us.”

“Don’t take it out on Casey, Bryce,” the kid says. “He took out seven of them. Without a gun. He got one of them with a microwave oven.” He turns to his protector. “That? Was like Jedi mind trick awesome.”

Bryce grins his real, full grin again. And Sarah’s suspicions are quickly solidifying into actual fact. Especially when Bryce runs his fingers through the kid’s hair and softly says, “Oh, Chuck.” And then he turns, and becomes slightly more professional. “Chuck, this is Sarah Walker. Sarah, this is Chuck Bartowski.” 

Chuck waggles his fingers at her in a winsome way, and chirps, “Hi!”

Bryce continues on with the introductions. “My boyfriend.”


	10. Chapter 10

With Casey and Bryce in a corner of the Buy More animatedly conversing about the day’s events, Sarah is left with Chuck. Which is a little awkward. But it isn’t as awkward as it should have been, because Chuck likes to talk. He doesn’t talk in a frenzied pace or someone who just nervously babbles, even if she can see him doing both. He talks, and attempts to draw her out. Sarah’s surprised to find out that it’s working, that she is carrying her own weight in this conversation thing, even if that weight is sometimes about how she doesn’t have a favorite band and how crazy Chuck thinks that is.

“Nina Simone.” He nods authoritatively. “I’ll bet on a stack of Battlestar Galactica DVDs that you’re going to be a Nina Simone fan.”

She smiles at him, and even though she had resented being left with him in the beginning, even though she’s positively desperate to hear what Casey and Bryce are saying, she’s getting to be pretty happy with where she’s ended up.

“Alright,” she tells him. “You’ll have to get me some.”

“Oh, of course! And that’ll only be the beginning.” Chuck’s bouncing on his heels, looking at her with an earnestness that’s hard to take. She’s a spy; she’s not supposed to be suckered in by a guy with floppy hair and puppy dog eyes and who seems to be devoid of any and all deceitfulness. And who manages to make her feel like his entire attention is on her, like even though they just met, she matters to him. She knows how Bryce fell.

The voices in the corner get a little louder, and Chuck’s happy bouncing slows. Silence stretches between them.

She’s desperate for a new topic, one that will fill that void and distract them both from the goings on in the corner and the day. She gets one of her wishes when what comes out is, “You seemed to deal with the gun situation pretty well.”

“Yeah, well. I’m glad I seemed that way, because I was pretty afraid I was going to just give a girlish scream and pass out.” Sarah chuckles. “Seriously, I was freaked. But I thought Casey would ride to my rescue.”

“You need rescuing a lot?”

Chuck’s earnestness spills into his grin. “Yeah. I’m Casey’s regular damsel in distress.”

She’s not going to lie, she’s a bit afraid this is going into some corner of Chuck’s sexuality she doesn’t want to be in, but she can’t help but respond with, “Damsel?”

“Well, yeah.” Chuck’s answer is matter of fact. “Times when girls were the damsels are long past, like 10 years ago past. You can all kick butt on your own now. And the damsel role had to be filled by somebody, so they called in guys like me. You know, the guys who know World of Warcraft better than how to keep a baseball score.”

Sarah laughs at that, and moves on to, “So, you work at the Buy More?”

Chuck shrugs. “Not really. Bryce and the company set me up with some pretty sweet digs. Really impresses my sister and her boyfriend. I have a secretary and everything. I mean, the secretary’s Casey, so, you know, I end up doing all of that stuff anyway, but the thought was nice. I, uh, I have friends who work here. And I worked here in college. So, I’m here a lot.”

Sarah nods, and tries her best to picture Casey answering phones. It isn’t a mental image that comes easily. 

Chuck grins. “I have pictures, if you want to see them. He’s got a head set on and everything.”

She looks at him in askance. “How – ?”

“Oh, come on. I tell you Casey’s a secretary, how could you not want to know? Oh! But call him an ‘administrative assistant’ instead. ‘Secretary’ makes him grumpy. Well, grumpier.”

Sarah can’t stop the grin that quickly spreads across her face.


	11. Chapter 11

John Casey isn’t really sure how he ended up watching over Bryce Larkin’s boy toy, especially when Bryce is nowhere near being on the list of 5 People Casey Can Tolerate. He’s especially not sure how the boy toy ends up being Chuck to him. More than that, he’s baffled that Boy Toy Chuck managed to weasel his way onto the 5 People Casey Can Tolerate list. Because on a lot of days, the boy just wears at the thinnest shred of his almost nonexistent good will and patience. But that thread never breaks, and so Chuck’s on the list.

He often has the urge to tell Chuck and his constant nattering about his feelings that he could get a better boyfriend than Larkin. He manages to control that urge, because he doesn’t want to hear Chuck’s valiant and loyal defense of the CIA hotshot. That reaction from Chuck would probably be enough to bump him down off of the tolerable list and to the realm of People Casey Visualizes Shooting. Bryce Larkin is at the top of that particular list, actually. 

But after a couple of months and some false starts, Casey starts genuinely almost liking Chuck. The kid’s smart. The kid is able to provide him with a range of handy tools. The first time, Chuck gave him a watch that would act as a flash bomb. Casey’d grunted his appreciation, and Chuck had practically radiated happiness. “Just call me Q,” he’d crowed. And then made Casey watch the Bond films – in order – when it became apparent Casey had no idea what Chuck was talking about. The Roger Moore films were almost enough to permanently remove Chuck from the Tolerate List and put him on the People Casey Would Shoot, If Given Half A Chance list. Luckily, Chuck had more than made up for it with more gadgets, as well as good intel on a host of missions that cropped up in the greater Los Angeles area while he was watching over the scrawny analyst.

It was the intel that had been the real impetus for taking this particular job. Bryce had known exactly which buttons of Casey’s to push, casually talking up this particular analyst, talking up how good he was at getting credible intel, talking up the amount of plots disrupted, and then further along in a conversation Casey reluctantly got dragged into about ambush tactics, casually mentioning that Chuck, that analyst, needed a handler for the time being.

Just like that, Casey had found himself in Burbank. About a month or two into the handler duty, Larkin dropped in. It hadn’t taken Casey long to recognize that the kid was head over heels for Larkin. That didn’t exactly win Chuck any points, but he’d long ago given in to the fact that almost everyone on earth was going to be in love with Larkin, and that it was his own personal cross to bear.

He’d been expecting that he’d need to tell Chuck to stop wasting his time, and maybe teach him how to fire a gun as a distraction. Instead, he walks into Chuck’s apartment one morning and takes in a lot more of Larkin than he had ever wanted to.

Which makes him want to demand answers, but the only person to demand answers from is Chuck. Casey knows that to demand answers out of Chuck is to either get answers, or to get a bashful Chuck shrugging helplessly at him and naggling the part of Casey’s brain that just wants to shoot everyone.

So he doesn’t demand answers. He doesn’t ask questions. He puts up with feeling like the fat kid in gym class, and he does his damnedest to protect some whiny analyst who manages to make him feel, from time to time, like he’s wanted around. Even when he doesn’t want to feel that way; even when he would rather be wanting to go into active combat, instead of wanting to be hanging around with the guy, his weird bearded loser of a best friend, his sister, and his sister’s boyfriend, aptly nicknamed “Awesome”. Because even Casey can admit that the guy is.

Then Chuck lets it slip. Actually, Casey leans toward thinking that Chuck decided to actively stop not telling. Chuck’s not really good at keeping secrets. He’s worse at lying. And the thing Chuck has no talent in at all is doing the both to someone he likes.

These are all the things Casey knows, so when Chuck answers Casey’s routine question about where the intel he’s working off of is coming from with, “The Intersect”, and then blushes, Casey is momentarily stunned. The Intersect is a secret project that even Casey doesn’t have high enough clearance to know any other details than that. Chuck’s story is fanciful, almost ridiculous. It starts off with a brief history of his and Larkin’s relationship, veers into Larkin stealing Chuck’s test and replacing it with a good-but-not-great test (and Casey is sure that has a point to some story, but God help him if he is ever able to truly follow Chuck’s tales fully), Chuck getting acquired by the CIA after college, Larkin convincing the CIA that it would be worth it to have an analyst on the outside who was not fully integrated into the agency, something about his (Chuck’s) crazy father, and then Larkin surreptitious copying the Intersect, corrupting the main Intersect, and sending the only working copy to Chuck. Who then accidentally absorbed all its data.

Bryce, on his next visit, is horrified when he learns Chuck spilled the whole story.

“It was a slip!” Chuck is eager to have both he and Bryce believe him. Neither of them do.

It occurs to Casey that he should tell Chuck at some point that his place is bugged. It occurs to Casey that Bryce should already know. But still, they have these conversations right there, in the center of the apartment, about how Casey is a cold-blooded killer and a burn out (Bryce’s position); and how he is Chuck’s friend and the only one he can talk to about his boyfriend being in the CIA and what kind of crazy shenanigans his boyfriend has dragged him into, and Bryce wouldn’t have sent someone who was a burnt out cold-blooded killer to be Chuck’s bodyguard (Chuck’s position). They’re both right and wrong at the same time. Casey is a cold-blooded killer. He prides himself on that fact. But he’s not a burn out. He certainly wouldn’t describe Chuck as a friend and he definitely doesn’t want to hear anything about that smug, egotistical ass of a CIA agent Chuck likes to sleep with. But he’s going to go to whatever lengths he has to in order to protect Chuck. If that means having to put up with Larkin, because he is also willing to go to whatever lengths to protect Chuck, he’ll have to live with only wishing he could shoot the pretty boy agent.


	12. Chapter 12

What Bryce had planned on doing was having a nice lunch with Sarah, showing her around the area, and then casually introducing her to Chuck later in the evening, after he’d managed to see Chuck himself and explain the plan. Because as much as he had wanted to keep the work part and home part of his life separate, he was able to tell pretty clearly that Sarah was curious about his Person (as she called Chuck) and Chuck was desperate to meet Sarah. Since Sarah was a good partner, and Chuck was, well, Chuck, his hands were basically tied on that front. Plus, he had brought Chuck into the CIA after college, so his whole idea of separate lives had been shot to hell 5 or so years prior. And yet, he’d had a plan for how to deal with all of this, and it was a good one. It involved some dinner at that Mexican place Chuck loved, and then drinks at that club Chuck liked, even though he never wanted to dance. It was, if Bryce did say so, well thought-out and gave Chuck the optimal level of comfort in familiar territory. It gave Sarah Mexican food and drinks. It gave him some measure of control.

And then Chuck went and got himself taken. Which, he reflects as he yells at Casey, is something that has been happening with some alarming frequency, and makes him rethink both the whole “sending his boyfriend secret government computers” idea and the whole “having Casey watch over his boyfriend” idea. Both of those, which had seemed pretty sound in the beginning, are starting to give him more headaches than they’re worth. No matter what Stephen Bartowski says, Bryce reflects as Casey yells back, Chuck’s really bad at this whole staying out of danger thing. Which is why he switched the damn tests to keep Chuck out of this specific program in the first place. And why this whole situation has become so farcical, because everything he has done to keep Chuck safe and Chuck-like up until 6 months ago has started to implode.

As Casey growls back at him, he’s surreptitiously trying to take in Chuck and Sarah. They seem to be doing fairly well, and he’s sure he’s going to hear about how amazingly awesome and cool Sarah is from Chuck later. He wonders if this is possibly a better way for them to meet than over drinks. Finally, his attention is brought back to the hulking beast of a man in front of him, when Casey says, “This sort of thing wouldn’t happen so often if you had just had him trained like - ”

“No. That’s not going to happen. No.”

Casey grunts. “Whether or not you want it to happen, the nerd’s going to have to learn some day. Or don’t you want him to be a big boy?”

There are days Bryce wonders why he thought Casey would be a good pick when it came to protecting Chuck. It may be because the only other candidate he could think of was Carina. “I don’t want him around guns. I don’t want him around this crap, Casey. Chuck’s not that guy. And he wouldn’t have to learn how to use guns if you did your damn job and protected him like you’re supposed to.”

Casey looks like he’s about to go apoplectic and Bryce is going to join him there, but Chuck takes this moment to pop in and says, “Bryce, don’t.”

So Bryce doesn’t. He glares at Casey, glares at his boyfriend when he makes Bryce apologize to Casey, and glares at Sarah when she wanders over. Chuck says, “Why don’t you shake on it?”

And Bryce is about to tell him where he can go when Casey replies, “How about I just shoot you both?” Then he’s ready to kill Casey all over again, but Chuck just laughs it off. Well, laughs it off and scurries away, pulling Bryce with him. Getting pulled away by Chuck is usually something Bryce enjoys, but not so much today when the message is:

“You’ve gotta be nicer to Casey.”

Bryce sighs and gets out a sullen, “Chuck -”

“You’re not here, Bryce. It’s not your fault that you’re not, but that’s the way it is. And everything’s on Casey. He’s been great.”

“So he normally doesn’t threaten your life?”

Chuck grins his megawatt grin at him, and Bryce can feel his resentment and his anger and his petty jealousy over the fact that a man-beast who shoots first and asks questions later gets to spend more time with his boyfriend than he’s gotten to in years slowly melt away. “I take that as Casey’s way of saying, ‘I like you, Chuck Bartowski, and I’ll kill you before anyone else can to prove it’.”

If there is one thing Chuck can do better and faster than anyone else, aside from the whole computer thing, it is make Bryce laugh. And so, after a couple of seconds, he does.


	13. Chapter 13

If he’s not careful, Bryce is going to upend Sarah’s entire construction of who he is. It starts with the rescue. It starts with Bryce actually screwing up, for once. It continues when he actually berates Casey in the corner, and only stops when Chuck comes to the NSA agent’s rescue.

But what actually threaten her vision of Rat Pack Bryce, Too Cool for (Spy) School, are his interactions with Chuck.

Around Chuck, Bryce comes alive. It is stupid and clichéd and ridiculous. That doesn’t stop it from being true. Chuck occupies Bryce’s entire attention. His brilliant blue eyes sparkle, his entire persona shifts from detached and a bit aloof to warm and engaged and charmed. He’s utterly in love with Chuck, and in love Bryce is a bit of a goof if Sarah does say so herself.

It takes Chuck very little effort to convince Bryce that they should have a nerf gun fight, that Sarah should participate, that Casey should participate, and that they should grab someone named Morgan and another person with the moniker of Captain Awesome as well. And soon, Sarah is running around a closed for renovations Buy More with five guys, shooting to fake kill. It’s as close to a truly independently fun moment she thinks she’s ever had. 

The game they’re playing doesn’t seem to be based on any sort of rule structure. Allegiances change quickly, though some, like the ones between Awesome and Casey and Morgan and Chuck (and alternatively, between Casey and Morgan and Awesome and Chuck), seem to last longer. Others, like the ones between Morgan and herself, dissolve as soon as they lose sight of each other. She’s actually surprised by how quickly things fall apart between Bryce and Chuck. If anything, she had figured it would be the two of them against the rest of the group, but both of them seem to take special pleasure in shooting the other unexpectedly and then running away. If it’s flirting, it’s the strangest way she has ever seen.

After a few hours, they straggle out to the center of the Buy More, all exhausted and more than a bit smelly. Awesome calls someone named Ellie, and Sarah finds her sweaty self pushed into a car and driven to a modest but trendy apartment complex in Burbank. She’s riding with Awesome and Casey. They’re engrossed in a conversation about white water rafting, and she’s free to just stare out the window and feel something akin to normalcy for once. It occurs to her that maybe that’s why Casey likes this mission, because it gives him something the spy life doesn’t. The more she thinks about it, the more she wouldn’t mind being chained to Burbank and to Chuck, and to this strange sense that maybe she could find a way to belong here.


	14. Chapter 14

Chuck’s gross and smelly, and while he’d love to blame all of that on the nerf war that he facilitated, he knows that at least a part of it was that whole getting taken hostage thing. Also, a little bit of it probably came from the fact that his boyfriend’s partner is freaking gorgeous and, from what he could tell, deadly. That is a combination Bryce has always found particularly alluring, especially in women, which is one of the reasons Bryce liking him confused him so much, especially in the beginning. Because of all the things Chuck is, gorgeous and deadly just aren’t on the list. Goofy and bumbling definitely are, along with at least a couple of the choice descriptors Casey uses for him on an hourly basis.

Bryce had teased him at first for buying an apartment in the same complex as his sister’s, but it has its advantages. Like, being able to utilize the courtyard for extended meet-and-greets, and having someone who is at least Sarah’s gender if not her exact size for her to borrow clothing from in a pinch.

Also, it means there are two showers for people to use.

Not that Chuck has gotten one yet.

Now that he thinks about it, this is particularly egregious because Casey also has an apartment in this very same complex, so technically there are three showers.

One of which he owns. And is being used right now by Sarah. Because Chuck is a gentleman.

Unlike his boyfriend, who hopped in his shower immediately after the group had convened in the courtyard and decided that Awesome, Morgan and Casey would use Ellie and Awesome’s place, and Sarah, Bryce and himself would use his apartment.

This means that Bryce is now not only gorgeous but also perfectly dressed and smelling like soap, and Chuck is still sweaty and gross. And not gorgeous. Or dressed well at all.

Chuck sighs, and Bryce, who has been fixing his hair in the mirror, turns to face him. “What’s wrong?”

Chuck finds himself shrugging, and Bryce makes his way to the bed and snuggles up to him. Chuck’s always found it incredibly endearing that cool Bryce Larkin can do snuggling so well. Today, though, he says, “I’m smelly.”

Bryce shrugs. “I’m good with that. What’s wrong?”

Chuck doesn’t really know where to start. There’s the superblonde in his shower right now, who has smoking eyes and is everything Chuck isn’t. There’s the whole getting kidnapped – again – thing. There’s the fact Bryce was there to witness his getting kidnapped, and his completely uncool handling of the situation. There’s the fact that kidnappings make him nervous and sweaty. But what he ends up saying is, “Casey isn’t wrong.”

Bryce snuggles further against him, his damp hair comfortably tickling Chuck’s face. “Yeah, he is.”

“I should know how to protect myself. I should know how a gun works.”

“I’ll get you a tranq gun,” Bryce replies.

Chuck groans. “That’s not exactly going to help.”

“Sure it is. You need protection? You’ve got Casey. You lose Casey? You have your tranq gun.” Bryce pulls away to look at him. “You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

“You seemed pretty worried today.”

Bryce grimaces. “Well, that’s just because I don’t like other guys holding my boyfriend.”

Chuck chuckles, and Bryce continues. “I don’t like the idea of you with a gun.”

“Because you think I’ll hurt myself?”

Bryce smirks. “That had crossed my mind. No. I love you, Chuck. I love everything about you. And you not killing people is something that I like a lot too. You have me for that. And Casey.”

“And Sarah.”

“And Sarah,” Bryce echoes. And like that, Bryce seems to get it. It used to scare Chuck, how well Bryce got him. How Bryce could answer questions Chuck was in no way comfortable asking before Chuck could bring it up. At times like this, though, Chuck’s pretty grateful for that gift. “Sarah’s great. She’s fun, she’s professional, and she can do things with knives I never thought possible. But she’s not you.”

“See,” Chuck laughs, “I’d think that’d be a plus.”

“That’s where you’re a dummy. I come home to you.”

And just like that, Chuck reflects as he and Bryce start to kiss, Bryce makes it better. Because that’s what Bryce has always done – make Chuck’s life better.


	15. Chapter 15

Casey makes his way to Chuck’s, with all the ingredients necessary to make those mini quiches of his Ellie likes so much, and the first person he sees is Walker. She looks a little uncomfortable in her borrowed sweats, but she’s damp and pretty and Casey groans inwardly, hoping against hope that this doesn’t mean he and Chuck are in for another conversation about Chuck’s feelings. The odds aren’t looking too good, though.

Turning the corner, he sees why Sarah’s looking a bit uncomfortable: Ellie Bartowski is in Information Mode. Over the past couple of months, Casey’s grown to know Ellie’s modes of operation well, and he himself has been on the end of Information Mode. It’s the mode that most means Ellie is worrying about Chuck, and it’s not a fun one to be on the other side of, even if you’ve been trained to resist all sorts of interrogation techniques. He blames the eyes. Both Bartowskis have those eyes that demand trust and loyalty. On good days, he wants to harness that power for the United States government. On bad days, especially when those eyes have been pointed at him, he gets the urge to blind them both.

“Hey, Ellie,” he interrupts. “I brought the stuff you asked for.”

Ellie turns to him and lights up. “Oh, John, thank you! Want to get started in the kitchen?”

“Uh, actually, I was hoping to talk to Sarah about laser tag tomorrow. But I’ll catch up with you.”

Ellie gives a slight frown with furrowed brow and nods. “Okay, I’ll get started on the rest of the food then. There’s guacamole on the table, and you know where the chips are, right John?”

Casey nods, and as Ellie walks off mutters to Walker, “How’re you holding up?”

Walker breathes out. “Pretty well. She’s, uh, a bit overprotective.”

“Wants to know about you and Larkin?”

Walker, who was just relaxing, stiffens up again. “Yes.”

Casey just grunts. 

“There’s nothing happening between me and Bryce,” Sarah continues, and Casey’s starting to worry that the conversation about feelings is going to happen with Walker, and not Chuck at all. Which is just wrong, because at least Chuck is Casey’s asset, the person he’s been assigned, however covertly by Larkin, to protect. Also, he’s been around Chuck longer. Walker, he’s known of for years and even socialized with a few times, but she has never brought him another bottle of whiskey just because she knew he was getting low. Also, they’re both spies, and spies should not have feelings-conversations with one another. It was just unseemly.

Finally, he decides to end this before it can begin with, “I don’t care.”

Walker startles. “You… don’t?”

“You want Larkin? Everyone wants Larkin. You slept with Larkin? Even better. Maybe then I can get the nerd to learn how to use a firearm.”

Walker blushes and then says firmly, “I’ve never slept with Bryce.”

Casey nods. “Fine. Why don’t you help Ellie in the kitchen while I go find the two idiots?”

Walker startles at that. “Oh, uh, I tried to get them before. They were… distracted.”

Casey grimaces, having already seen enough of Bryce to last a lifetime. “That happens. You get to talk to the bearded one then. I have to make quiche.”

As he makes his way to the kitchen and to Ellie and her probable 20 questions, he hopes that Walker’s discovery means that Larkin did the boyfriendly thing and had the emotions conversation. Knowing Larkin, though, he probably jumped straight to the sex and was leaving the insecurity-driven Chuck for Casey to sort out after he and Walker sped out of there.


	16. Chapter 16

Ellie Bartowski is currently very concerned with the polite, nice, fit, and beautiful blonde currently wandering around her brother’s living room. She’s tried to engage John in a discussion about said blonde – Sarah – and what this could mean and why Bryce would bring her here; but John has a very strictly enforced rule about discussing Chuck and Bryce’s relationship that he has yet to break. Occasionally, she gets a sharp growl from him, but she’s yet to figure out if that is a ‘pro’ noise or ‘con’ noise so he’s little help in this current situation.

It didn’t take long for Ellie to accept Bryce as part of the package. When Chuck came home that first Thanksgiving, he brought Bryce with him. And Bryce had been nice and polite and incredibly cute, and had looked at her brother like he was the best thing in the world.

He had also gotten Morgan to leave early, which for Ellie was a miracle in and of itself and worth putting Bryce up on a pedestal for.

And when Chuck told her that he and Bryce were an item, he was practically glowing and Ellie didn’t even have to be there to tell.

It wasn’t like there wasn’t anything odd about their relationship. Bryce was almost constantly gone; doing some kind of work for the State Department she didn’t quite understand. But he always came back, and Chuck was always thrilled to see him.

So this time, when six very sweaty people traipsed into her apartment, she could tell immediately something was up. Between Chuck and Bryce, even though Bryce seemed somewhat oblivious to it. And since she knew all of the other players in the game, the person making her little brother feel insecure and worried was easy enough to figure out – Sarah.

The truth was, Sarah seemed very nice. Incredibly nice. A little closed off, but that just made her a lot like the rest of Chuck’s college and post-college friends. Say what you will about John Casey, and she liked the man a lot, he wasn’t one to over share.

So when Bryce wanders out of Chuck’s bedroom – their bedroom – and Chuck goes to jump in the shower, Ellie calls him over and shoos John out of her brother’s kitchen with a promise to watch his quiches carefully. Bryce seems to know what’s coming, but first he gives her the hug she missed out on the first time around, when he was dirty and smelly and covered in Buy More grime.

“Hey, Elle.” Bryce smiles winsomely at her, “How’s the hospital?”

Ellie shoots him a look. “Who’s Sarah?”

Bryce doesn’t look uncomfortable at all, which Ellie thinks is just slightly unfair. “Sarah’s my partner. She’s nothing to worry about, Ellie, I promise you.”

“If you run off and break my brother’s heart - ”

Bryce looks her straight in the eye, and she’s lost for a moment in their blue. “I’m not going anywhere. Chuck’s the most important thing in my life, and I’m not going to screw it up. Haven’t yet.” He turns away and looks at Sarah. “You should talk to her, Elle. Not about me and Chuck, because she doesn’t know much about that. But just, in general. She’s a good person. I think you’ll like her.”

Ellie makes her worried face, knows she’s doing it and just lets it happen, because Chuck is her brother and she has to protect him and Bryce has been around long enough to know all of her and her brother’s bad habits. “How come she doesn’t know a lot about you and Chuck?”

For the first time, Bryce looks a bit uncomfortable. He leans against the counters, and fiddles with the towel she helped Chuck pick out. Finally, he looks over her left shoulder at nothing in particular and says, “Chuck is mine. I don’t like – I don’t share him with anyone. He’s mine, and he keeps me steady.” He focuses back on Ellie. “When I’m away from him, it helps to keep him close. I don’t want other people to know about him. I want to still have something that’s mine.”

Ellie stares at him for a long minute, and then gently bumps him with her shoulder. “You’ve got it bad for him.”

Bryce laughs. “You have no idea.”


	17. Chapter 17

As the days tick on, Sarah finds herself more and more enamored with life in Burbank, California. The hotel Bryce has found for her is beautiful, Chuck is fun to hang around with and picked up on her dislike of black olives on pizza far more quickly than any boyfriend of hers ever has, and spending a few days without a mission is kind of refreshing. But having a mission is always better.

Which is why she’s sitting in front of a casual dining experience dedicated to hot dogs on sticks.

Because Bryce and Casey had a briefing with General Beckman, Bryce had given Chuck and Chuck’s safety over to her. Sarah thought it was a bit strange that a relatively normal – if brilliant – guy couldn’t be left alone for any length of time, but Casey had taken her aside and told her that Bryce was overprotective. Extremely.

And so she and Chuck are sitting in front of a Weinerlicious, comparing notes on a potential case when his eyes flutter and roll into the back of his head for a couple of seconds.

“Whoa, okay, okay,” Chuck’s eyes are back to normal now, but his breathing is heavy and he doesn’t answer Sarah when she asks if he’s okay, when she leans forward and lays a hand on his arm out of concern.

“Okay, I need to talk to Casey. Or, Bryce. Probably Bryce. Or both.”

If there’s one thing Sarah didn’t expect, it was for Chuck to become so riled about paperwork. “They’re in a briefing, Chuck. We’re going to have to wait.”

“Nope, now.” It’s like he doesn’t even hear her. Chuck leads her to his car, and then drives about three minutes to a much nicer building that houses his software company’s office. They spend those three minutes in complete silence.

Chuck’s through the security in seconds and hurries down the stairs, leaving Sarah momentarily in the dust. She’s heading down the stairs in utter confusion and hears Chuck burst into the room to say, “I had a flash – a flash, a flash of, of inspiration!”

She hurries a little more quickly and sees both General Beckman and Graham on the screen. And also takes in Bryce and Casey’s visage of panic and worry and, surprisingly in Bryce’s case, irritation. “Hello, sir. General.”

“Sarah,” Graham offers warmly. The general nods once.

Beckman returns her attention to Chuck. “Mr. Carmichael, is there something you wanted to share with all of us?”

Chuck looks like he’s about to disintegrate. “N-no, ma’am. Sorry. Really. Do you want me to – I’ll go wait. Upstairs.”

Bryce clears his throat. “I’ll go with Mr. Carmichael, General.” 

Beckman looks less than pleased. “No, you will not, Agent Larkin. You will stay right where you are. Major Casey, would you please escort Mr. Carmichael into the main office? Agent Walker, why don’t we fill you in at this time?”

Casey grunts and hustles Chuck out of the basement; and Sarah takes her place next to her partner, who, amazingly, fidgets.

“I will never understand why you insist on working with Mr. Carmichael, Agent Larkin, but his unprofessionalism is a disgrace.” Bryce stiffens, and nods. “Agent Walker, I presume Agent Larkin has told you about the critical meltdown the Intersect has suffered?”

Agent Larkin actually hadn’t, but Sarah decides to go with a, “Yes, General” for her response. Bryce gives her an apologetic, worried and thankful look, all in one. It’s a feat, even for him.

“We suspect it was an inside job.” Bryce stiffens even more at that. 

“I thought it was just a glitch.”

Both Director Graham and General Beckman look at Bryce oddly. “That was our initial supposition, but several of our techs have looked at the data and believe someone actively sabotaged the mainframe.”

Sarah stares blankly at the screen. “Why would anyone do that?”

“The Intersect was a top secret project. After 9/11, the NSA and the CIA were told to play nice. To share intel. The Intersect was our way of doing that. Every shred of information was fed into that computer, and it mined for patterns in the chatter. Anyone with something to hide, within either agency, would have reason to do that, Agent Walker.”

Graham clears his throat. “In addition to your other assignments, we would like for you, along with Major Casey, to work on the problem of the Intersect. That is all.”

As the screen goes blank, Bryce grabs Sarah’s arm. “Come on.”

He pulls her out of the basement, out into the main room, past Chuck and Casey, and outside. “Wait out here for two minutes, okay?”

Sarah nods, and he dives back inside to confer with Casey and Chuck. She can hear Casey’s grunts, and watches as Chuck rubs Bryce’s arm, and gives him a quick kiss. Soon, Bryce is out the door a second time, and pulling her along again. Soon, she’s had enough.

“What’s going on, Bryce?” Sarah’s put the brakes on in the middle of what looks to be an open air market.

Bryce sighs, and head nods toward a bench. Before they’re even fully sitting, Bryce breaks out with, “We’re looking for me.”

Sarah stares at him. “What?”

“I’m the one who sabotaged the Intersect.”


	18. Chapter 18

There are a thousand different ways Bryce wanted to have this conversation. In some of them, Sarah’s even rogue, which makes the guilt over never having included her in the planning process less acute. The guilt isn’t really overwhelming anyway, but he knows that pulling this kind of fast one on a friendish person who is your partner is a dick thing to do. He starts in the middle.

“A couple of months ago, I floated an idea by Chuck for how to destroy a supercomputer. He didn’t really know what he was doing. I presented it as (a) an enemy’s super computer, and (b) completely hypothetical. I’d been planning on going in there, all super spy and blowing the place up. But Chuck told me that was stupid. That the best plan was one where it looked like a hardware or systems failure, and that if done right, no one would know that it was an outside job. And that in the event they figured it out, the perpetrator would be far away when they did.”

Sarah knows that her mouth is hanging open. “Bryce – why?”

“A couple of months before that, a group called Fulcrum approached me about stealing the data. Stealing the Intersect. They presented themselves as a shadow group working – with clearance - within the CIA, and by the time I realized that they were a group at war with the CIA… …it was too late. I had to do something. Our friend Tommy, by the way, was in that group. I didn’t know who to trust.”

“Except for Chuck.”

Bryce nods. With every word, he becomes more tense. With every word, he can see his carefully constructed labrynth fall away into a pile of dust, with a clear path to Chuck on the other side. “Except for Chuck. So, I got him all excited, got him to build a program that would both extract data from a remote location and at the same time destroy and corrupt data at the primary location for our hypothetical argument. And he did. And when he was done, I took the program and copied the Intersect.”

Sarah nods. “You gave the Intersect data to Chuck.”

Bryce grimaces. “Not exactly. It’s more like… I put the Intersect data in Chuck. I took a text-based video game we’d built in college based off of Zork and made it the key. Chuck thought I was playing a game, and he saw all of the images. Chuck is the computer.”

Sarah recoils. “What? Why would you do that?”

For the first time, Bryce turns to look at her. “It seemed like the best idea at the time. He was the only one I trusted. He is the only person I trust completely. As a bonus, the people looking for the Intersect are looking for a computer, not a guy who has the ability to absorb files. And now, he’s completely invaluable. He’s as important to the government as he is to me, and if I ever need to, I’ve got that as my trump card.”

“What?”

Bryce can see, like a video game, his levels of aggravation rising. “I need him safe, Sarah. And I know, crazy backward way to go about making it so that is, but there are things they’re going to want from him if they get half the chance. I’m making sure they don’t get that chance.”

Bryce sighs. Rubs his hands over his face. “Look, I’ve got to get back to Chuck. He’s probably worried sick. But you deserved to know. Whatever you do now, I understand. But I want you to keep Chuck out of it.” He adds as an afterthought, “And Casey. I chose to do this.”

Sarah stands up and walks back with him in silence. He has no idea what side she’s going to choose.


	19. Chapter 19

Chuck knows, the second he slides into the secret room under his office and blurts out the word “flash”, he and Bryce – and he and Casey – (but hopefully not he and Bryce and Casey) are going to be having a fun conversation. Bryce – and then Casey – have been very, very clear about the whole deal about mentioning anything that could even remotely connect him with a giant supercomputer that he helped go kerplooey. Not that he knew he was doing that at the time, but all the same. And as soon as he sees General Beckman and Director Graham, two of his not favorite people in the world, he knows that he hasn’t broken up a briefing, but a Briefing. And that’s wholly different. And bad. So very, very bad.

He recovers oddly but fairly well, if he does say so himself, but the look on Bryce’s face in particular is enough to fling him headfirst into misery. Especially when it is Casey who brings him upstairs. And especially when the first words out of Casey’s mouth are, “Idiot. What were you thinking?”

Chuck shrugs helplessly. “I thought, ‘briefing’, like our briefings. Like, when I give you the rundown of chatter and… …other… intel. I didn’t know it was ‘Briefing’, like joint chiefs.” He pauses, hesitates to ask, but then plunges ahead. “How pissed is Bryce?”

Casey looks irritably at him, and while Chuck normally tries to follow Casey’s ‘no talk about feelings’ rule as well as he can, he’s got to know. What’s worse, he can feel the whine in his voice coming on when he prompts his companion with, “Casey?”

Casey grunts, and then says, “Why don’t you ask him yourself?”

Chuck doesn’t particularly feel like getting into the particulars of this delicate part of his relationship with Bryce; how Bryce both loves the open, ridiculously pathetic part of Chuck that makes keeping a secret almost nigh impossible (the fact that he isn’t currently in an underground bunker is a personal victory), but still gets irritated when that part interrupts this grand spy life he’s created and the covert life within the spy life that he maintains, and this specific covert mission within the covert life within the spy life that he’s embroiled them all in, and frankly, keeping all of Bryce’s worlds separate the way Bryce wants him to tends to hurt his head. Besides, when he starts rambling, as he is wont to do in situations like this, Casey gets cranky. Crankier. So, instead he just silently shakes his head.

Casey sighs. “Look, moron, he’s probably just worried. But I don’t know. Larkin doesn’t talk to me about his lady feelings.” 

Unlike you, is the silent implication. Chuck gets that message loud and clear, picks up a pen, and starts drumming it against the desk. It’s a matter of seconds before Casey clasps his hand over the pen, looking more annoyed than murderous. Chuck idly ponders exactly what he would have to do right now for Casey to want to kill him, and then realizes that a Casey who wants to kill him may, in point of fact, kill him. Instead of pushing his luck, he leans into the desk.

“It’s just… This is me, you know? Bumbling, idiotic, bad spy me. And if he wants super spy, he should be with someone else. Someone like - ”

“Walker.”

Chuck nods. “Yeah, like - ”

“Is coming.” Casey grinds out, but quietly.

Chuck takes in this small piece of friendship (first comes down on the side of “friendship” rather than “self-preservation”), and shuts up as Bryce pushes Sarah past and through the door. He then doubles back.

“They think the Intersect was an inside job.” Casey growls low, and looks murderous. Chuck just looks at his boyfriend. “I’m going to have to tell her something.”

Casey nods.

“Okay. How about we tell her the truth?” The looks on both of their faces resemble what Chuck imagines they would look like if he suggested Casey get a tutu and danced the lead in Swan Lake. “Oh, come on. Bryce, she’s your partner. She already knows you tell me stuff you shouldn’t. And, I trust her. She’s good people.”

“She could turn us in for a shiny gold star, moron.” 

“Exactly. She could put us all away, Chuck, and she would do it thinking it was the right thing to do.” Chuck wants to take a moment to celebrate that for once, Bryce and Casey are on the same page, but he figures pointing that out may ruin it completely. Instead, he moves over to Bryce, gives him his full attention, rubs his arm in the way that makes Bryce melt.

“Do you think she’s Fulcrum?” Bryce looks at him. “Do you?”

“No.”

“Well, it’s my head. I say, tell her.”

Bryce nods, and Chuck gives him a kiss, a quick one in an effort to keep Casey’s homicidal urges down.

“Don’t I get a say?” Casey looks vaguely annoyed.

Chuck nods as Bryce shakes his head. “Yeah, you do, Buddy. Of course.”

Casey sighs. “Walker’s a damn fine agent. If you explain it to her correctly, she may even be able to help us get back totally on the grid.”

Bryce doesn’t look happy with that plan, but tells them both he’ll be back shortly, walks out the door, and leads Sarah away.

“I’ve got a good feeling about this,” Chuck tells Casey conversationally.

“Yeah? Well, I think we’re going to need new idents in 24 hours or less.”

“You’re an Up person. I appreciate that about you.”

Casey does his growl/grunt combo that, as far as Chuck can tell, means ‘Normal Level of Pissed’ and goes off to do sec – administrative assistant things, like straightening the desks and making sure his guns are all properly hidden within the various drawers and light fixtures. Chuck decides his best bet is to just continue standing there, holding on to his wobbling good feeling.


	20. Chapter 20

Sarah follows Bryce back to the office at a distance, numb all over. Stops before she goes inside. Sits instead on the curb near Chuck’s car.

Amazingly, or not, it’s Chuck who comes out to see her; Chuck who asks in his earnest, open, and completely amazing way if she’s alright; and it’s Chuck who leads her to an ice cream stand so he can buy her Rocky Road when she said that was the only thing that would help. She had been facetious on that point, but Chuck had made it his mission to get her some.

It’s Chuck who, instead of pestering her with the questions and fears she’s sure he’s got in his head, because she’s been around him for more than two seconds, sits in silence with her as she slowly consumes her ice cream cone the way she always used to as a kid. And it’s Chuck who takes the cone from her silently and licks around the bottom when the ice cream was starting to melt toward her hand and then hands it back.

Finally, the silence gets to him, as Sarah suspected it would. “He didn’t tell me, god, anything, at first.”

Sarah nods, still numb. “I know. He said he tricked you into destroying the Intersect.”

Chuck laughs, but it’s not his normal happy laugh. “Yeah, no. Yes, he did. But that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about – um… Us. Beyond the CIA stuff. Bryce is the person I love most in the world, the only person – aside from Ellie – I would do anything for, without question. But in the beginning, I knew we were friends and I knew that he liked me, but I sometimes wondered if he really… you know. If he cared as much about me as I did about him. If he wasn’t just ashamed of me.”

‘It’s not just you,’ Chuck is saying. Chuck is telling her about his life, probably because he knows she’s not about to tell him about hers. Chuck is making Bryce’s betrayal better, or trying to. Sarah knows this. She recognizes for about the hundredth time in the short span she’s known him how truly easy it must be to fall for Chuck Bartowski.

So she nods, acknowledging his efforts. “I don’t think it’s the spy thing. I think it’s a Bryce thing. And, you know, it hurts. He knew how I felt about him for months before I knew how he felt about me. I had to ask him. It was a particularly embarrassing moment, actually, that we don’t need to relive, but… And he stole my test! Without telling me. Not as bad as a government computer, but.”

Chuck falls silent. Sarah feels the ice cream melting down her hand, and makes no move to take care of it. She lets Chuck do that for her. The numbness is starting to give way.

“The CIA is my life,” she finally says. Chuck, who’s still wiping her hand with wet naps, looks up solemnly. “If I kept this from them, I don’t know…” 

Chuck nods. “Yeah, I get that, I do. I just… I want Ellie safe. And Bryce. And Casey.” He gently squeezes her now alcohol-cleaned hand. “You’ve got to make your choice.”

The thing is, Sarah’s made her choice. She made it the second she followed Bryce back to the office, and it was confirmed the second she saw Chuck. She can’t give him up. Can’t ruin this life he’s built with the people he’s surrounded himself with.

She gets up, gives Chuck a small smile, and starts the walk back to the office.


	21. Chapter 21

Chuck has left Casey and Bryce alone for twenty-three minutes and change. Casey sits there silently counting down the time until he is unceremoniously discharged from his government service. Larkin tries to start a conversation every so often, but Casey refuses to respond, figuring that Bartowski will be upset if he ignores his boyfriend outright, but he’ll be incredibly hurt if he comes back to find pieces of Larkin decorating the office. Upset Bartowski gives snarky rants; Hurt Bartowski, he’s a whole other creature.

Larkin tries again at the twenty-six-and-four-seconds mark, with, “It’s looking good.”

Casey finds himself compelled to reply, which is irritating in its own right. “What is?”

“The length of time for them to come back.”

Casey smirks. “Sure. Unless your girl decided to grab the geek and high tail it to a secure government security aboard a helicopter, leaving instructions for a black ops team to come in here and take us out.”

Larkin glares. “I don’t know what Chuck sees in you.”

“Likewise.” Casey doesn’t know why he’s letting himself get dragged into this. Maybe it is because it’s patently ridiculous, this game Larkin has been playing. “You made a tactical error when you sent the Intersect to Chuck. You picked someone close to you. You picked someone who can’t even keep the easter eggs in video games a secret.” Bryce startles. “And then you picked a career military man to watch over him, hoping that nothing would slip that wasn’t supposed to. And when it all unravels, you have the audacity to look surprised. You have a superiority complex that would choke God Himself. You are a bad spy.”

“We’re going to get out of this.”

Casey can feel the fury curdling in the base of his spine working its way up. Hurt Bartowski is looking more and more like an inevitability. “The only reason Walker isn’t spilling her guts right now is because it’s Bartowski. The only reason I haven’t gone to my superiors is that I look as guilty at this point as either one of you. You have compromised this mission.”

Larkin, to his credit, looks down. “I know.” He sighs. “I want to take Chuck with me.”

It’s a strangely dull feeling, the return to normal levels of irritation, after the intense anger. He gives what Chuck has termed his ‘Encouraging Grunt’. Larkin does. “You don’t like me, and I sure as hell don’t like you. And – I miss him. I think I can protect him, and he was a good analyst before the Intersect, so… I could make it work.”

“You can’t take him.” It startles him, to have this reaction. He doesn’t really care about Chuck – not really. But he knows what Chuck cares about, and he knows how to break the kid. “He won’t let you just whisk him away from his sister and that moron.”

Bryce nods. “I know. But I want to.”

Casey hates Larkin, hates how everyone falls for Larkin, but more than that, he hates these moments when Larkin moves toward something he can understand. It’s easy to think of him as some hot shot idiot spy whose main talent is in seducing anything that moves. To think of him as someone who sacrifices for the government he serves, it’s harder to believe he’s just a pretty face. So, he just grunts, and they both allow the silence to fill the void.


End file.
